29 November, 2005

Welsh scientists drill world's smallest hole

Researchers at Cardiff University's Manufacturing Engineering Centre have managed to drill holes in steel as small as 22 microns (0.022 mm) in diameter using a electro-discharge machining (EDM) process, and reckon they could be the smallest ever achieved. Reports the Register.

EDM is also known as "spark machining" and basically involves machining conductive materials using sparks discharged from an electrode. The Cardiff Uni EDM process uses a six micron diameter electrode. A spokesman says: "The holes we are now drilling in Cardiff with the electro-discharge machining process could be the smallest in the world. This is a welcome riposte to people who typify the Welsh as a unsophisticted."

Cardiff University is now seeking funding for a programme to breed teensy-weensy ponies and budgerigars.

Ah, weak jokes about the Welsh= music to my big ears.I'm an Englishman exiled in Wales and they take no greater pleasure in running the English down.You will find more Welshmen watching an England national footy match than a Welsh one. The reason? Because they want to see us lose....it's a fact y'all.I was going to suggest that they were working on shrinking humans so they could make a series of nanoscale glory hole movies for the net, but maybe thats just my aberrant mind churning.